“Adrian, if there’s really no way to save it, maybe you should sell the business. Mom and Dad wouldn’t blame you.”
Adrian Cross reached over and ruffled his younger sister’s hair, giving her a reassuring smile.
“Don’t worry, Maya. I’ll handle it.”
After dropping her off at school, he drove straight to headquarters.
It had been barely more than half a day since he had found himself here.
That was long enough to piece together the basics.
This was a parallel Earth in all but name.
The year seemed to line up with 2018, and aside from different names for certain countries, cities, and institutions, most of it matched the life he remembered.
This world’s Adrian Cross had been a textbook prodigy: two master’s degrees from New Harbor University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, one in pharmaceutical chemistry and one in pharmaceutical analysis.
A little over five feet eleven, handsome, and exactly the kind of academic standout professors loved to praise.
Unfortunately, his parents had died in an accident not long ago.
They had not left him security.
They had left him a biopharmaceutical company on the edge of bankruptcy, along with a younger sister still in high school.
New Harbor Umbrella Biopharmaceuticals.
He had to admit it: his father had known how to pick a name.
Umbrella.
In his previous life, that name belonged to the infamous corporate titan from Resident Evil: a global monopoly, a corporate superpower, the final boss hiding behind a pristine logo.
The version he knew covered pharmaceuticals, medical hardware, defense products, and nearly every cutting-edge field imaginable.
Beneath the polished surface, it concealed advanced military technology, bioengineering projects, biological weapons, and classified programs the public was never meant to see.
The operation he had inherited was nothing like that.
It was an obscure little pharmaceutical plant.
Its main products were routine injectables, saline, glucose, pediatric cough medicine, and other basic drugs.
Against serious competitors, it had no flagship drug and no product strong enough to give it a real edge.
Years of research had burned through enormous funding, but not one viable new drug had reached production.
If sales did not improve soon, cash flow would collapse.
Bankruptcy would be next.
Even so, the assets were worth several billion.
The problem was the debt: two billion dollars in liabilities, with its debt ratio closing in on one hundred percent.
If nothing changed, failure was only a matter of time.
Worse, plenty of people were already circling.
Some were waiting to swoop in and buy the firm before it collapsed.
The laboratories, production lines, and facilities were complete.
Add in the billions poured into research, and even without a market-ready drug, the equipment, archives, and accumulated assets were still worth a fortune.
In other words, even if bankruptcy came, he could still walk away with enough money to live comfortably for several lifetimes.
‘No.
I refuse to accept that.’
‘A second life.
A company called Umbrella.
I will not let it die in my hands.’
‘If there is even the smallest chance, I will take it.’
‘Umbrella.
What a beautiful name.’
[System]
Ambition Detected: Super Technology Store activating…
[System]
Super Technology Store: Activated
Reward: One Starter Draw
The sudden voice made him go still for half a second.
He steered onto the shoulder at once and stopped the car.
“A system? So I did get one. Use the starter draw.”
He had been here for almost a full day.
For a while, he had nearly convinced himself he had been dropped into this world without one.
[System]
Starter Draw Complete
Reward 1: Umbrella Underground Base x1
Reward 2: HIV/AIDS Cure Formula x1
His pulse jumped when he saw the notification.
“Perfect timing. Exactly what I needed. And it comes with the Hive.”
An underground base was absurdly valuable on its own, but the cure formula alone was enough to pull Umbrella back from the brink and make it one of the most sought-after pharmaceutical operations in the world.
HIV/AIDS had plagued humanity for decades, and the number of people living with it was staggering.
He shifted his attention to the interface now hovering in his mind.
It looked almost like an in-game store.
Its functions were simple.
Almost brutally simple.
It sold things.
The catalog was divided into three categories.
Medical Products.
Military Products.
Miscellaneous Products.
As the name suggested, the medical section contained drug samples, formulas, production lines, and related assets.
It ranged from cold medicine, anti-inflammatories, and wound treatments to cures for cancer, HIV/AIDS, leukemia, and other life-threatening diseases.
It even stocked super-soldier serum, NZT-48, gene-enhancement agents, and other science-fiction products, some of which he had never heard of.
Their effects bordered on impossible.
The only drawback was the price.
x x x